Does anyone have advice for dealing with students that want stuff remarked? The prof said she would do it, but now she wants me to remark a students exam. I don't have the time and I'm worried I'll mark the student lower because he's being an annoying twit. The prof is no help at all.

I teach comp, so my students write papers and not exams, but.... if I had a student insisting on regrading, I would tell him/her that I regrade carefully and while the student may gain points in some areas he/she may lose points in others.... Basically, any place I had previously been generous with points, I would no longer be generous. Because honestly I don't have time to regrade 46 papers or deal with whiners (and I'm an a-hole... and I spend a lot of time grading carefully THE FIRST TIME). Hopefully said student would go the fork away. If not, I would proceed as promised.

Out of curiosity, is anyone doing a MS in anything like finance, accounting, statistics or similar? Since I'm on hold with my career change for the moment, I was considering doing something that I think I'd enjoy but without a real thought to change of career.

I was toying around with becoming a CPA and requirements for that are pretty rigid (like includes recent work experience). I know there are people who do taxes part time during tax season and I've thought about looking into that (I think H&R Block and others provide training) but I think I'd be really good at accounting overall, even if it is just from an academic sense. I like data especially numerical data, I like working with data, I like finances, so accounting seems like something that might interest me. The problem is that the MS degrees I've seen really are aimed at management/corporate types. Again, I was just thinking as an interest thing and I'm really toying around with taking an intro to accounting course at the local community college.

_________________You are all a disgrace to vegans. Go f*ck yourselves, especially linanil.

Out of curiosity, is anyone doing a MS in anything like finance, accounting, statistics or similar?

I'm not in any of those programs. However, my roommate is in the Actuarial Science program at out University and based of my conversations with her it seems there are plenty of job opportunities. I also know a couple people in the stats program here and their job prospects are pretty good as well.

In other news. I finished my MRP proposal. Hopefully everyone will sign off on it.

Did research over the summer with a corporation. Poster presentation is next Thursday. Poster needs to be printed this Friday afternoon. Corporation originally said that their PR department needed to approve the poster before presentation. I've been trying for a week and a half to get in touch with my preceptor and even tried his supervisor and can't get either of them to respond! AAAGGGHHH.

Student in tutorial last week asked a really good question. That was the same week I was frantically working to finish my mini-project and basically got no sleep. Also I lost about 10 lbs in the span of a month because I was skipping breakfast most days, which I normally never do. BASICALLY I was going crazy. Consequently, I forgot to figure out the answer to her question so when she asked it again yesterday I still didn't know. I completely dropped the ball and now I feel like a worthless failure as a TA.

An important point is that I may also have been a bit distracted by simultaneously juggling a budding romance, which is a significantly less justifiable reason than being really stressed, so my "oh no too much work" excuse is meaningless, since I clearly still had time left over which I could have spent figuring out the student's question. (I just figured out the answer, btw. It was stupidly simple and I should have already known it.)

The prof said she would remark the exams is students wanted. I may pass it off to the other TA if need be.

Lower grades are a risk. Every prof. I had who offered regrading made sure we knew that in advance. Make sure the student knows that. Because you're looking at one alone, you have the Great Honor™ of doing a critical reading which could go either way.

Writing my literature review makes me want to cry. Every time I read an article I feel like I need to add three more to the list of things to read. It will never end, but it MUST end! And I know once I send it out for people to review they all be like "wah wah you need to add this theory that didn't think of."

Also, jobs that don't let you check the status of letters of recommendations also make me sad.

Groan. Two big deadlines for group work tomorrow. One group, there were 3 lab reports to write so each of us took one to write. I wrote mine almost a week ago, second guy wrote his a few days ago. Third guy sent his out a few hours ago and said oh yeah can you get feedback to me in the next few hours because I'm leaving the country. Really guy? Luckily he had the shortest and easiest experiment but still.

Another group, we had two big writing pieces to do. I wrote ALL of the first one with the understanding that my other two group members would split the second piece, which had 4 sub parts. Today one of them is like, you two need to do these two parts and I'm like you have got to be kidding me. The third member is like well I'll do one of the 4 sub parts. Leaving me one as well. Did I mention we've had 3 weeks to write this? If I had known I needed to do this 3 weeks ago, it would be done!!

It's 9 pm and I just spent all day doing Halloween crepe with my kid. I worked my asparagus off the past week or so to make sure I'd be able to take today off to spend with him. That I now have to keep going to fix other people's failure to manage time well is despair inducing.

^ I think I've done group work with those people! One time I had to present a seminar worth 25% of my grade with this guy who would not return my phone calls/ emails/ text messages for the week leading up to it. We finally arrange a run through of our respective bits about 3 hours before the class and he's just reading out extracts of one of the assigned journal articles, verbatim. The article was written by the professor grading the seminar. It was on my 30th birthday.

Working freelance while studying part time was a bad idea. I'm tempted to throw in the freelance work and find something with regular hours that pays less because I am SO SICK of dealing with cranky authors/ incompetent typesetters/ changing specs. I came back to school because I want out of publishing but realistically I don't think I can pay my rent without it. /whine

I have a paper to write, papers to grade, and a ginormous pile of reading to get through in the next few days. So of course I come down with a terrible, mind-numbing, critical-thought-annihilating cold/flu/virus thing (which I totally got my from my bacteria-ridden students) that has rendered me incapable of anything but watching stupid TV and taking spontaneous naps.

We finally arrange a run through of our respective bits about 3 hours before the class and he's just reading out extracts of one of the assigned journal articles, verbatim. The article was written by the professor grading the seminar. It was on my 30th birthday.

Yow. Thanks for sharing though, it gave me a much needed laugh.

We got both my things from yesterday in by the deadline. The responsible lab report guy is really awesome, and between the two of us I think the lab report will be okay. We have another major deadline, same class and same group, in a week, which I gather no one but me has really put much time into yet. Sigh. Irresponsible guy will be gone for 5 days so I guess that means he'll have 2 days to work on his part when he gets back? Maybe I should just do his work now and avoid the inevitable. At least this is a really straightforward white paper sort of assignment and not something that will require a lot of analysis/thought beyond researching and rephrasing.

The school I went to for undergrad had 4 seven week terms (where you take an entire full-length class compressed into that much time) and I am just not practiced in this sort of endurance. I keep thinking about how I have another month and a half to go of this and just collapsing into despair. Not because any one thing is so hard but because it's just deadline after deadline after deadline and I am so forking tired.

We finally arrange a run through of our respective bits about 3 hours before the class and he's just reading out extracts of one of the assigned journal articles, verbatim. The article was written by the professor grading the seminar. It was on my 30th birthday.

Yow. Thanks for sharing though, it gave me a much needed laugh.

We got both my things from yesterday in by the deadline. The responsible lab report guy is really awesome, and between the two of us I think the lab report will be okay. We have another major deadline, same class and same group, in a week, which I gather no one but me has really put much time into yet. Sigh. Irresponsible guy will be gone for 5 days so I guess that means he'll have 2 days to work on his part when he gets back? Maybe I should just do his work now and avoid the inevitable. At least this is a really straightforward white paper sort of assignment and not something that will require a lot of analysis/thought beyond researching and rephrasing.

The school I went to for undergrad had 4 seven week terms (where you take an entire full-length class compressed into that much time) and I am just not practiced in this sort of endurance. I keep thinking about how I have another month and a half to go of this and just collapsing into despair. Not because any one thing is so hard but because it's just deadline after deadline after deadline and I am so forking tired.

I went to a UC for undergrad and I think we had 10 week terms and for my MS, we had 5 week terms? It was really quick.

I think you are doing CS right? I wish I could be your CS buddy and we could get our projects done on time. Not that I really have any interest in CS degrees any more. I'm itchy for something else now, but haven't quite figured out what. Group work always seems to suck though.

_________________You are all a disgrace to vegans. Go f*ck yourselves, especially linanil.

My first trip to grad school was at a UC and I thought 10 week terms were too long too! 7 weeks is the perfect length for keeping up the super high level of intensity that I put into work when I'm on my game. It is not a realistic thing though. I guess I am learning how to be the academic equivalent of an endurance athlete instead of a sprinter.

I'm in a software engineering program now which is pretty much computer engineering but every class has some group component. Which, again, is more realistic than doing all your work in isolation. It is just also fraught with drama! My third class group had drama too, a couple days before this other drama.

Community college is an awesome way to try things out before you commit to a longer, more expensive program! (Actually, that is how I ended up back in grad school-- I took a PHP class at the local CC while on maternity leave and realized this was where I actually wanted to be.)

Actually, I took classes for a year and a half at community college. There are some other classes I'd like to take but they are upper division and I'd have to look at what I'd need to do to take classes at a college (the college that is 45 minutes away from me). I feel like my interests are everywhere though.

_________________You are all a disgrace to vegans. Go f*ck yourselves, especially linanil.

Wow. I can't imagine doing good grad work on even a 10 week cycle - it works great for undergrad, but for in depth grad work, 10+ is my preference. (I do cognition research; qualitative/descriptive stuff and experiments. I can't imagine <10 week turnarounds.)

I hate school and I want to quit!!! I know I only have a month and a week left before I am finished, but still!!!! I hate it and it is too much work. I don't like any of it!! (I am too tired to type out my entire existential crisis/temper tantrum, but you get the idea.)

_________________You know, I was sure she said ducks but drunks makes more sense. Do ducks pee? I don't know. -vixki

I hate school and I want to quit!!! I know I only have a month and a week left before I am finished, but still!!!! I hate it and it is too much work. I don't like any of it!! (I am too tired to type out my entire existential crisis/temper tantrum, but you get the idea.)

Oh, I know this feeling. So well. It's been happening at least 1-2 times a week for the past 2 months. Ugh. I hope yours passes soon, only just over a month left!

Obviously, David's time and expertise are not usually available for free, but if you think a little bit of advice or a helping hand would get you back on track, I'll ask if he can take a look. Send a PM if you want me to talk to him about it.